Wine and Wetlands: a major new funding initiative for wetland conservation in the Netherlands

Wetlands International has recently entered into a partnership with the Banrock Wine company from Australia and the Dutch State Forestry Service to facilitate wetland restoration projects in the Net...

Wetlands International has recently entered into a partnership with the Banrock Wine company from Australia and the Dutch State Forestry Service to facilitate wetland restoration projects in the Netherlands. Banrock Station Wines, which already provides assistance to wetlands conservation projects in Australia, Finland, the UK and Canada last year announced support for environmental projects in the Netherlands from part proceeds from wines sales in the country. In the Netherlands, funding is being used for wetland restoration in the De Weerribben National Park. The Weerribben forms the most important marshland area in northwestern Europe. A low-lying peatland, with bogs, marshland, reedbeds, wet meadows, pools, channels, heathland, and woodland, the Weerribben is important area for numerous species of breeding birds, as well as notable species of plants and butterflies. Human activities include reed cutting, woodland coppicing, regulated hunting and recreation, livestock rearing, and water sports. The Banrock wines funded project will assist in restoring open water to the Weerribben. This will maintain, and even increase, the rich biological diversity in the wetlands whilst at the same time assisting better management of the wet reed bed areas which provide valuable habitat for Savi's Warbler (Locustella luscinioides), Great Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus), and Bearded Reedling (Panarus biarmicus). A detailed monitoring programme will focus on the Great Copper butterfly. The Weerribben is together with two other wetlands in the Netherlands the only place in the world where this subspecies of butterfly lives. The many species of dragonflies found in the national park will also be monitored.